Proving that federal and local law enforcement officials can successfully work together to deport convicted illegal aliens living in the United States, a new database that gives local police immediate access to federal immigration files has helped capture hundreds of violent criminals.

It took six years after the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history for the government to finally complete the crucial database that has so far only been used in three states and is vehemently opposed by immigrant rights groups that claim it will lead to racial profiling. But statistics, anecdotes of success and local police tell a much different story.

In only a few months the database has helped capture 130 illegal immigrants in Southern California who would have otherwise been released on bond for their repeat offense as well as 6,700 jail inmates. A recent example is the case of a previously deported Mexican man with a violent record who lived freely in Southern California. He was arrested for trying to rob a car and when his fingerprints were scanned into the federal database, police instantly determined his criminal past, which includes convictions for child molestation and grand theft auto.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff said that without the new federal database, a criminal such as this would have been freed on bail as deputies waited for hours for federal and state officials to do a background check. The same would happen in thousands of other cases, according to an official who said “these people would be undetected and released if we didn’t have this capability.”

So far about 50 California police agencies have been given the new rapid access database as well as some police in Boston and Dallas. The Department of Homeland Security hopes to eventually make the system available to all law enforcement agencies nationwide.

Groups such as the California-based Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund are battling to eliminate the system, accusing it of promoting racial profiling among police. This is the same “Latino advocacy” group that says it’s racist to make English the country’s official national language and inhumane to build a border fence. MALDEF also promotes free college tuition for illegal immigrants and lowering educational standards to accommodate new Latino migrants. No wonder a magazine article recently called MALDEF one of the leaders in the anti-American movement that takes its ideological guidance from various anti-American leftist groups.